According to a new report released by Good Jobs First, a non-profit research center, Wisconsin’s Recovery Act website ranked 4th best in the country in terms of the quality and quantity of information on how recovery funds were spent. Here is their press release about the report.
More than $200 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is flowing through state governments to help counteract effects of the economic downturn. The public deserves accountability and transparency in the use of these funds, and we are pleased to note that Wisconsin has improved in that regard. Wisconsin moved up from 8th place in the previous report card, issued in July 2009.
The report notes that Wisconsin is one of just three states with a website that uses maps to compare the geographic distribution of spending with patterns of economic distress or need within the state. Other aspects of the Wisconsin website that helped the state earn high marks include: detailing allocations in broad and narrow program categories; showing award amounts on a county-by-county basis; mapping the locale of individual projects; describing the projects undertaken; publishing contractor names and award amounts; and projecting the number of jobs created by each project.
The report makes a number of recommendations for ways Wisconsin and other states can improve their Recovery Act websites:
• Providing comprehensive data on wage or benefit levels in ARRA jobs or on the demographics of the workers in those jobs.
• Putting a summary of key information about ARRA spending at the top of the home page of the site.
• Reporting the share of ARRA contracts going to minority, women-owned or other disadvantaged business enterprises.
• Providing the full texts of at least some ARRA contract awards.
Although we are very pleased that Wisconsin now ranks among the best in the nation in providing information about how stimulus funds are spent, there is still a lot more to be done. WCCF is very fortunate to be participating with a number of other Wisconsin nonprofits in an initiative funded by the Open Society Institute to track and analyze ARRA spending in our state, encourage public participation in state-level decisions, and advocate for an equitable distribution of recovery funds.
